Thursday, July 31, 2008

A Little Tribute

The bicycle and the chicken warmer I wrote about yesterday were both entries in the Knitting Camp contest. The theme–pieces celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Schoolhouse Press–was inspiring. But given the frantic and fraught nature of my spring and summer, I figured I'd skip it because there'd be no time (and less money) to prepare something really good.

Then, as I was packing for the Provincetown trip, I got an idea for a project that would be portable, inexpensive, challenging, and attainable in a short time. I knit and mounted what is possibly the smallest-ever traveling exhibit of works by Elizabeth Zimmermann.

All three sweaters are "true" miniatures, meaning I followed Elizabeth's formulae exactly as written, including ribbing, sleeve decreases, underarm grafting, etc. The trickiest bit was working out new numbers for the Baby Surprise Jacket to keep it in scale with the others. The yarn is laceweight and sock reinforcing thread, all worked on size zero needles.

I displayed them in a glass-fronted box under the heading GENUS ZIMMERMANNII with individual Latin labels for each specimen. My Latin's shaky (to put it mildly), but the effect is pretty funny.

And to my immense surprise, when the votes were tallied–I won.

Here's a closer look.

Tunica mirabila infantis

Subucula mathematica, var. Retinaculorum

Tunica tomtena

All the patterns (for full-size garments) are available in Knitting Workshop. They were fun to make, though I will advise that if you wish to enjoy a nice, relaxing knit I advice against working a 12-stitch sleeve in laceweight on four needles.

Your Latin is apparently doing just fine. Mine is crumbling away in a drawer somewhere, but this is flippin' brilliant.

I've been contemplating bitty fair-isle stockings as Christmas ornaments. I have the size 000 needles, but no laceweight I'm willing to sacrifice. Maybe if I take sock yarn and split the plies...? And now here you are encouraging me in this insanity.

just wanted to point out (because you seem like the type of person to care) that your book link for knitting workshop redirects to an amazon page, rather than the page to purchase it directly from schoolhouse press, which is here:

I did a Christmas tree garland last year with 1.5" sweaters and 3/4" socks, teeny scarves and hats. The socks were stranded, and had a proper turned, gussetted heel. I know just how non-relaxing your exhibit would have been.

Those are awesome, and you are insane (in the best possible way). I second "lise in nj" on the i-cord for small tubes. If you do one stitch less than called for you can ladder up a column to eliminate the gap a la nona's i-cord gloves (which I'm making now, which is how I know). These must have made P-town even more fun.

Taking absolutely nothing away from your clever, clever entry, but I bet the bicycle woman was pissed. :) Never mind. You risked your eyesight for the cause. I have just discovered your wonderful blog and have already bought two T-shirts. Knitting, art, and wit in one blog?? Love it!

Copyright and Posting Notice

All original content of this blog, both words and images, is held in copyright by F. Habit. Use of any kind, in any medium, for any reason without express, prior written consent is prohibited.

Permission is not granted for the posting of any content from this site to Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, or any other Web site.

Please do not provide links to any product, service, organization or cause when leaving comments unless directly related to the topic of the post. Unsolicited advertising will be deleted and repeat offenders will be blocked.

When in doubt, please ask. I'm not mean, I'm just committed to preserving the quality of experience for my readers.